Nothing is more devastating to a parent than the call from a police officer that a son or daughter
has been injured or killed in an auto accident. Nothing is more tragic than to learn that a drunken
or drugged driver was at fault.

Each year, more than 25,000 of our citizens, a large number of them young people, are killed as a
result of alcohol- or drug-related highway accidents. Seventy times a day -- every 23 minutes -- a
life is taken somewhere on our streets and highways because driving skills and judgment were
impaired by alcohol or drugs. Too often, a repeat offender is involved and, too often, society has
looked the other way.

Today, thanks to a growing public outcry and the efforts of concerned citizens and safety leaders,
the problem of drunken and drugged drivers is gaining national attention. State legislatures are
enacting tougher laws and courts are imposing stiffer penalties. The Presidential Commission I
appointed last April is reinforcing these efforts and encouraging greater preventive and corrective
programs. Congress recently passed legislation setting Federal standards and providing incentive
funds to assist in the crusade against the human and economic waste which results from drunken
driving.

The holiday season, traditionally a high fatality period, affords us the opportunity to join even
more emphatically in a concerted national commitment to reduce the threat of drunken and
drugged drivers on our highways.

Collisions involving drunken drivers are the nation's single greatest killer of young people. This
holiday season we can give our children a great gift by doing everything we can to keep the
drinking driver and the drug-user off our roads. Let us all observe safety and celebrate safely, and
let us remember that the safety belt in our car can be our best defense against drunken and
drugged drivers.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, in accordance with
Senate Joint Resolution 241 (Public Law 97 - 343), do hereby proclaim the week beginning
December 12, 1982, as National Drunk and Drugged Driving Awareness Week. I call upon each
of you to observe this week with appropriate activities in your homes, offices, schools, and
communities. I ask all Americans to join in a national campaign to eliminate drunken and drugged
driving and to prevent tragedy from intruding on our joyful holiday season.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 13th day of Dec., in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and eighty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the
two hundred and seventh.

Ronald Reagan

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 1:16 p.m., December 14, 1982]